Aquaculture and Marketing of the Florida Bay Scallop in Crystal River, Florida

Aquaculture and marketing of the Florida Bay Scallop in Crystal River, Florida Item Type monograph Authors Blake, Norman J.; Adams, Charles; Degner, Robert; Sweat, Don; Moss, Susan D.; Sturmer, Leslie Publisher Florida Sea Grant College Program Download date 10/10/2021 07:29:03 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/1834/20351 FLORIDA SEA GRANT COLLEGE PROGRAM FLSGP-T-00-002 C2 R/LRcAc20 Aquaculture and Marketing of the Florida Bay Scallop in Crystal River, Florida by Norman J. Blake, Charles Adams, Robert Degner, and Don Sweat with special reports on Marketing Analysis by Susan D. Moss, Robert Degner, and Charles Adams and Economic Analysis by Charles Adams and Leslie Sturmer TP-106 October 2000 l_ UNIVERSITY OF ~.·JFLORID·A Sm~ "..:',..!.!!!.;/ ~ EXTENSION Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences This technical paper was supported by the National Sea Grant College Program of the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanicand Atmosheric Administration under NOAA Grant # NA 76RG-0120. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of any of these organizations. Aquaculture and Marketing ofthe ~lorida Bay Scallop in Crystal River, Florida By Norman 1. Blake, Department ofMarine Sciences, University ofSouth Florida, St. Petersburg Charles Adams, Food & Resource Economics, University ofFlorida, Gainesville Robert Degner, Florida Agricultural Market Research Center, University ofFlorida, Gainesville Don Sweat Florida Sea Grant Marine Agent University of Florida St. Petersburg Submitted to·Florida Sea Grant Final report on Project RlLR·A·20 January 1999 -, ("-.) -, -, TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 2 BACKGROUND 2 Distributionof the Species 2 Life History of the FloridaBay Scallop 3 Aquaculture of Argopecten irradians 3 METHODS 5 Collectionand Maintenance of Spawning Stock 5 Marketing 7 Economic Evaluation 8 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 8 Growthand Mortality of CagedScallops 8 AquacultureTrainingProgram 14 REFERENCES 15 INTRODUCTION Scallops have a high market value and are considered a delicacy in many parts ofthe world where either the entire meat is consumed or only the large adductor muscle is consumed. Over 35 species ofscallops are harvested worldwide but wild stocks in many areas have declined either because ofover fishing or because ofnatural or man-induced environmental changes. One species, the American bay scallop (Argopecten irradians[ is a commercially important species along the east coast ofthe United States but commercial fishing ofwild stocks ofthe bay scallops is presently almost non-existent with harvests in New York alone declining from 500,300 lbs. ofmeats in 1982 to only 300 lbs. in 1988 (Wenczel, et aI., 1992). The Florida Marine Fisheries Commission has banned the commercial harvest of the species from wild stocks in Florida and no previous attempts have been made to examine the aquaculture potential ofthe species in Florida. Commercial aquaculture ventures have been started in the United States in Virginia, New York, and Massachusetts but until recently economic success with the species has been less apparent because the shucked adductor muscle meats ofdomestically grown scallops can't economically compete with the imported American bay scallop meats from China. However, in the past five years, a market has been created in the northeastern United States and Virginia (Oesterling and DuPaul, 1994) for the whole, unshucked product like clams and oysters. This new product is marketed at a premium price as a specialty item and local demand has exceeded production, making the economics ofdomestic aquaculture feasible (Oesterling and DuPaul, 1994). The overall goal ofthis study was to develop a new fishery resource product through open-water aquaculture for the west coast ofFlorida that would compete as a non-traditional product through market development. Specific objectives were as follows: I. To grow a minimum of50, 000 juvenile scallops to a minimum market size of40 mm in a cage and float system in the off-shore waters ofCrystal River, Florida. 2. To determine the growth rate, survival, and time to market size for the individuals in this system and area to other similar projects like Virginia. 3. To introduce local fishermen and the aquaculture students at Crystal River High School to the hatchery, nursery, and grow-out techniques. 4. To determine the economic and financial characteristics of bay scallop culture in Florida and assess the sensitivity ofprojected costs and earnings to changes in key technical, managerial, and market related parameters. 5. To determine the market acceptability and necessary marketing strategy for whole bay scallop product in Florida. BACKGROUND Distribution ofthe Species The bay scallop, Argopecten irradians (Lamarck), occurs in the shallow estuarine habitats along the east coast ofthe United states from Cape Cod, Massachusetts to Texas (Clarke, 1965). Three subspecies have been described based upon shell morphometries (Waller, 1969). The northern subspecies, Argopecten irradians irradians, extends from Cape Cod to approximately New Jersey and Maryland where it may hybridize with the southern bay scallop, Argopecten irradians concentricus (Clarke, 1965). Harvestable populations ofthe southern bay scallop become discontinuous beginning about North Carolina. It is absent along the Georgia coast (Walker et al., 1991) and from the East Coast ofFlorida (unpub data). It reappears on the southwest coast ofFlorida where it again continues north 2 along the West Coast. Although not common, the southern subspecies reportedly is found as far west as Louisiana (Waller, 1969; Broom, 1976). The third subspecies, Argopecten irradians amplicostatus, occurs from Galveston to Laguna Madre, Texas (Waller, 1969). The degree to which these subspecies are physiologically different is not well understood (Bricelj et aI., 1987) but Blake, et al. (1995) have shown that there are significant genetic differences.. Life History of the Florida Bay Scallop Bay scallops are functional hermaphrodites which reproduce essentially once during their 12-24 month life span. Spawning is largely catastrophic, although the northern populations are more synchronous than the Florida subspecies (Barber and Blake, 1991). On the West Coast ofFlorida spawning begins in early August in the north (Sastry, 1961) and October in the south (Barber and Blake, 1983). The planktonic larval stage ofthe Florida subspecies lasts 12-14 days (Sastry, 1965), and it is during this planktonic stage that the larval distribution and eventual recruitment may be controlled by the hydrodynamics ofthe estuary (Eckman, 1987). As the larvae metamorphose, the prodissoconchs (190 urn) typically attach to blades of Thalassia. Growth during the winter is slow but by April scallops of20 25 mm can be seen on the seagrass (Barber and Blake, 1983). By May scallops become unattached and settle to the bottom at which time growth becomes rapid. Scallops of40-50 mm occur in July and may reach 60 mm by December (approximately 15 months ofage). Growth is continuous in the Florida subspecies even at 33°C, only 2°C below the upper lethal temperature ofthe adults (Sastry, 1961). Natural mortality after 12 months ofage is high due to senescence, and only a few survive into the winter months oftheir second year. The reproductive cycle ofthe species is well-understood (Sastry, 1963, 1966, 1968; Blake and Sastry, 1979; Barber and Blake, 1981, 1983, 1985). A complex relationship exists between a successful reproductive cycle and environmental factors, mainly food and temperature. A minimum threshold temperature and an abundance offood are required to initiate gametogenesis during the spring ofthe year. Cytoplasmic growth ofoocytes in the Florida subspecies near Tampa Bay begins in June and July and requires continuation ofadequate food and a water temperature ofapproximately 28°C (Barber and Blake, 1983). Spawning in the fall usually occurs with a rapid drop in water temperatures, although any environmental shock may trigger spawning. Ifwater temperature and food supply are inadequate early in the reproductive cycle, then oocytes either stop developing and are resorbed or the mature ova become necrotic and any spawning event produces a large amount ofnon-viable ova. The latter may occur even though the gonadal tissue ofthe scallop may appear "ripe" macroscopically (Blake and Sastry, 1979). Aquaculture ofArgopecten irradians The high market value ofbay scallops combined with rapid growth and short life span ofthe species has led to the development and refinement ofhatchery, nursery, and grow-out techniques (Castagna and Duggan, 1971; Castagna, 1975; Rhodes and Widman, 1980; Mann and Taylor, 1981; Karney, 1991; Oesterling and DuPaul, 1994; Lu and Blake, 1996). Using the information about the natural reproductive cycle investigators have used either artificial conditioning and various stimuli to spawn adults for larval production in a hatchery or relied upon the harvest ofreproductively mature adults from the natural environment for spawning stock. Embryonic and larval stages ofmarine invertebrates are often the most sensitive to the environmental conditions and extreme mortality ofthe embryos and larvae ifa strict environment is not maintained in a hatchery. Temperature, salinity, and food supply appear to be the most important environmental variables regulating the growth and reproduction ofthe adults as well as the survival and 3 growth ofthe embryos and larvae. Tettelbach and Rhodes (1981) extensively studied the combined effects oftemperature

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